EP.205 Ashes of the Land (5)
It didn’t take long for a lawless ruffian to be educated in etiquette.
“This way, please. Guest.”
10 minutes.
For a mercenary who had lived freely for his entire life, just 10 minutes was enough to realize the importance of politeness. The mercenary kept bowing his waist as he walked at the front.
“Do you need an explanation about the Ashen Wasteland? Just ask, and I will explain everything I know…”
“Shut up. Close your mouth.”
“Y-yes…”
At a single word from the man, the mercenary trembled. He noticed his broken fingers and began to sweat coldly.
‘I was pretty confident in my skills…’
The mercenary had once been a renowned fixer. He believed he could easily overwhelm a couple of mages with just his sword. But what was the outcome?
Crack!
With great enthusiasm, he pulled his sword and lunged, but the blade met the man’s bare hand. It felt like striking a rock, and his grip on the sword was painfully numb.
‘And then….’
He was beaten like a dog.
Not as a metaphor, but truly beaten like a dog.
“Uck! Wait! Uck!”
“My bones… they’re breaking! Wait, just a moment!”
His sword shattered into pieces, and he had to endure being beaten until his bones broke. As the mercenary screamed with a swollen face, the man merely said one thing.
“Stop whining and get up.”
With a cold glare.
“Your legs are fine, so you can walk. Guide us.”
The mercenary’s face paled at the thought that the man had avoided hitting his legs on purpose. In his eyes, the man no longer looked like a mere mage.
‘What a monster.’
What kind of mage punches a swordsman without casting a single spell? There could be no other such monster. The mercenary swallowed his tears as he moved.
“Why are you killing a kid? I just wanted to explain. Can’t someone have some affection for their hometown?”
A voice came from behind.
It was a soft voice. It was probably the girl who was accompanying the man. The mercenary quietly listened as he walked.
“Why should I listen to the bragging of parasites infesting a foreign land? If it were up to me, I would turn everything upside down.”
“Well, it’s just that I have to go…”
A playful laugh.
Soon, the footsteps got closer.
“Hey there, mister.”
“Y-yes?”
Tap, tap, the girl poked the mercenary’s shoulder. He turned his stiff neck to look back. A girl with a sweet smile was looking at him.
Gulp.
Feeling mesmerized by her appearance, the mercenary nervously asked her, “A-are you curious about something?”
“What do you have in the Ashen Wasteland?”
“Are you interested in goods…?”
“I just want to see what’s available.”
Her gentle voice seeped into his ears.
“Well, um, first of all, about the facilities…”
Captivated by her beauty, the mercenary began to explain various things. He spoke about the goods available in the Ashen Wasteland and all the facilities he knew of.
“Oh…”
The girl let out a brief gasp of admiration.
Then she took a few steps back, lightly tapping the mercenary’s shoulder again. She looked over at her companion and shrugged.
“Sounds about right.”
“Feeling a bit dirty here.”
“Should we clean it up?”
“Wouldn’t that be a hassle?”
“It wouldn’t be hard. I’m quite good at smashing and turning things upside down. This is nothing…”
A deadly conversation took place behind him.
The mercenary moved on, half-listening to their conversation.
‘…She may look cute, but her words are deadly.’
It was like watching a child showing off bravado, making the mercenary quietly chuckle. He took the chance to think of her words as a joke.
“If you head straight this way, you will find the path into the ashes of the land.”
A long corridor.
Pointing toward the eerie wind blowing through the corridor, the mercenary took a step back. Following this path leads to the land of death, where everything is turned to ashes.
‘I don’t know why we’re going to such a place…’
But that was no longer the mercenary’s concern.
All he wanted was to put some distance between them as soon as possible. Just as he was slowly trying to back away from them…
“I’ll give you one piece of advice.”
The man who had beaten him like a dog spoke up.
His chilling golden eyes glared at the mercenary.
“Leave this place within a week.”
It was both advice and a warning.
The mercenary could only nod silently in response to that chilling gaze.
2.
A land where life can no longer be conceived.
With every step, the ashes crumbled beneath him. The vast expanse of the wasteland was entirely ashen. The colorless wasteland truly lived up to its name as the land of ashes.
“……”
Since entering the Ashen Wasteland, Cardi’s words had significantly dwindled. He moved along in silence, his expression hard as stone.
‘…Well, that makes sense.’
It was once his hometown.
But now, nothing remained.
As he stared at such a place, all sorts of emotions would rise and fall repeatedly. And all that would remain at the end was a stiff, expressionless facade. Indecisive emotions don’t show up on one’s face.
I had a similar experience.
Every time I returned to my village, now reduced to ashes, I would offer flowers at a gravestone that bore no single corpse, and both Kyle and I would become expressionless.
“…It seems even after centuries, it still feels nostalgic?”
I asked without context.
“Even if you live a hundred or a thousand years, the moments that leave a mark will always just be fleeting.”
Cardi answered vaguely.
We walked in silence for a while through the ashes of the land. At first, it was just ashes, but as we continued to walk, other sights began to catch our attention.
The ruins of collapsed buildings.
Pillars that had fallen in disarray.
Everywhere around were the remnants of structures that hadn’t completely disintegrated. The further we walked, the more debris lined the pathway. Up to this point, it was still familiar terrain.
‘I’ve seen it once before.’
What I truly wanted to know was.
‘What lies ahead.’
I lifted my head.
The ground that had crumbled beneath my feet began to feel a little firmer. The ashes whirled about, and what remained was cracked earth. As soon as we stepped upon that ground, we stopped.
Growl.
Beyond a line marked like a boundary, a red glare flickered. It was a beast living in the Ashen Wasteland. Crossing that line meant we had to confront those beasts.
‘Not just beasts.’
Even though this was human territory, a dark magic pulsed in this area. It was virtually a phantom territory. My past self could not withstand this place, but…
“Should we go in?”
Not now.
As soon as my foot landed on the darkened land, the air shifted. The tightening sensation around my throat felt almost nostalgic, like returning home.
“Whoa.”
I let out a short gasp and pulled my gloves down. The previously relaxed flow of mana tautened once more. With the mana now poised, there was no way any dark magic could permeate.
“It’s been a while.”
“Let’s clear it first.”
Cardi nodded and pointed ahead. The moment we crossed the line, the attention of the beasts gravitated toward us. Just as I clenched my fists, ready to sweep them away…
“…Huh?”
I blinked.
The beasts, revealed through the flickering red glares, looked strangely familiar for some reason. I furrowed my brow and glanced back at Cardi.
“Those…”
“You’re probably right.”
Cardi replied calmly.
“They are the beasts created by Gleria. Most likely, they were among the first she made. A mishmash of putrid humans and beasts.”
“No, wait…”
“They’ll be lurking everywhere. Let’s deal with them as we advance.”
I held back a sigh and smacked my forehead. It seemed our journey wouldn’t be as easy as we hoped.
3.
The beasts controlled by the heretic were significantly different from ordinary creatures. There was no such thing as a normal beast.
‘The most notorious would be the Carapace Dragon…’
The Carapace Dragon was a creature that crushed everything in its path.
While it was indeed the most troublesome beast, the problem didn’t end there. Everything summoned by the heretic possessed sharp traits.
From beasts erupting from the ground, to explosive beasts that attach to you, and beasts swimming through the fog… none of them were easy to deal with.
All of them in the hundreds.
Hundreds, even thousands, forming an army, charging forth.
‘And I have to break through that in mere seconds…’
Because of this, every time an assault on the heretic occurred, there were immense casualties. Countless knights perished, and even the heroes, including superhumans, had to risk their lives.
Losing arms and fingers was just standard; if one wasn’t careful, even legs could be blown off. Each time, Sara had to squeeze her holy power to stitch back the mangled limbs of Kyle and me.
“It was a nightmare, truly.”
I exhaled deeply while stomping my foot. Squash, the skull of a beast underfoot crumbled.
“Sometimes I get confused about whether these are beasts or zombies. They keep moving even after you crush their limbs… If you don’t finish them off properly, they’ll charge again.”
I snatched the neck of a beast leaping at me. With a solid grip, I crushed its vertebrae. Tossing the limp beast to the ground, I flicked my fingers.
Smite.
The released jet of force crushed the leaping beast’s limbs. As I approached the convulsing creature on the ground, I stomped on its head to finish it off, then turned my head.
“Think we cleaned up enough?”
Pointing at the remnants of the beasts scattered nearby, I asked Cardi. He looked at me with a slightly bewildered expression.
“…Raniel, you…?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you really a mage?”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Everyone says that when they see me. This is just the most efficient way, right?”
Cardi looked at me with eyes that clearly conveyed ‘Is this really a mage?’ I shrugged at his gaze and continued.
“I conserve mana and minimize the area of effect. So I don’t have to destroy ruins unnecessarily. Isn’t it great?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“Good things are good, aren’t they?”
I scrubbed the soles of my combat boots against the ground. The reddish slime smeared on the cracked earth made a schlick sound as I wiped it.
‘There are indeed a lot of them.’
I narrowed my eyes while rubbing my feet on the ground. The further we went, the more beasts appeared. The ground was tainted with thick soot.
“…But why are the heretic’s beasts this crowded?”
“Because Gleria invaded through the western wall.”
Cardi answered my question calmly.
“You’ve heard the tale of this place being destroyed overnight, right?”
“I have. It’s written in the history books. A kingdom that perished overnight due to the Four Calamities.”
I nodded.
Every history book that spoke of ancient kingdoms always included this sentence as if it were a promise.
“The kingdom that perished overnight due to the Four Calamities.”
The most prosperous human state.
Yet, a state that vanished overnight.
Thinking of that sentence, I opened my mouth.
“Was it really overnight?”
“More accurately, it happened from sundown to sunrise. About half a day.”
Having borne witness to that history firsthand, the elf began to recount the tale.
“The first to appear was Gleria. There was the main church of the Deloheim Church in the west, and Gleria emerged there, turning it into ruins.”
This very place.
Saying that, Cardi stepped forward.
“In the east appeared Belial. In the battle with the Demon Lord, he had completely turned into a Black Dragon, losing his sanity as he rampaged, tearing down castle walls and slaughtering humans.”
Many children perished in the flames he breathed.
Cardi chuckled bitterly as he muttered that.
“Unfortunately, that place was where the Academy was located. It was where children, whom Belial claimed to protect, were being educated.”
Cardi kept walking.
He kept walking and walking.
“Then appeared Skebal in the south. In the land filled with towers, he slaughtered mages and demolished the towers. In a way, he fulfilled his wish.”
I followed silently behind him.
“Lastly, Ganikalt showed up. The sword he wielded cleaved through the sturdiest castle walls. The knights tasked with defending those walls were forced to confront their idol when he drew his sword to break the walls…”
And so there was only death left.
“In that place, the pride of the knights was crushed. The heroes they once revered met their end at the hand of a knight. The last bastion crumbled by the hand of the hero, who was called humanity’s protector.”
As Cardi spoke, his pace gradually slowed down, so very slowly. He stopped where the soot still remained on the wreckage.
“And I.”
Standing on the ashes, Cardi turned to me.
“At that time, I stood here.”
The soot that had not faded even after centuries.
Dead beasts, melted and solidified, littered everywhere. Cardi stood there with a bitter smile.
“I tried to stop Gleria, who had gone mad here.”
The collapsed sacred church.
The ruins scattered about.
Countless pools of putrid liquid stained the ground.
“……”
Cardi’s gaze narrowed as he looked upon it. His eyes grew narrower and narrower, and eventually closed. It was a distant past for me, but it seemed like a recent memory for him.
“…Let’s move.”
Cardi finally opened his eyes. With a subdued voice, he pointed toward the wreckage of the collapsed sacred church.
“There’s something we are looking for inside.”
